Marla Keller, M.D., at left, and Mimi Kim, Sc.D., co-principal investigators on the primary grant.
The Harold and Muriel Block Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Einstein and Montefiore (ICTR) has received a seven-year, $30 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The new award will ensure that the ICTR will further its vision to improve health in the Bronx, Westchester County, and the lower Hudson Valley by accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into effective and equitable prevention and treatment approaches. Two additional grants from the NIH totaling $5 million will support the ICTR’s graduate and early-career-development programs.
“Since establishing the ICTR in 2007, our goal has been to reduce barriers that researchers face in making new discoveries and to speed up the rate at which scientific findings are incorporated into clinical practice,” says Marla Keller, M.D., co–principal investigator on the primary grant, director of the ICTR, and professor and vice chair of medicine at Einstein and Montefiore. “And while we have always prioritized addressing health disparities, we are launching new resources to catalyze and support research that will significantly advance health equity.”
The award will focus on advancing translational science, a new field of investigation dedicated to enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of all translational research. “We will introduce innovations in critical areas, such as community engagement, health informatics, and data science, that will facilitate research across a range of diseases and conditions,” says Mimi Kim, Sc.D., co–principal investigator on the primary grant, associate director of the ICTR, and professor and head of the division of biostatistics in the department of epidemiology & population health at Einstein and Montefiore.
The ICTR’s education and training grants will support both the Ph.D. in clinical investigation, which is embedded in Einstein’s biomedical graduate program, and a career-development program for junior faculty that links with the ICTR’s master of science in clinical research methods program, which has been instrumental in building the physician-scientist workforce at Einstein and Montefiore. The ICTR will diversify the research workforce by increasing the number of trainees from groups historically underrepresented in medicine and prioritizing representation of nurses and Ph.D. scientists in its training programs.
“At the core of Einstein and Montefiore has always been a commitment to equitable access to healthcare, education, and research for all people in our communities,” says Paul Marantz, M.D., M.P.H., co–principal investigator on the education and training grants, associate director of the ICTR, associate dean for clinical research education, and professor of epidemiology & population health at Einstein.
In addition to Dr. Marantz, Michal L. Melamed, M.D., and H. Dean Hosgood, Ph.D., are co–principal investigators on the career development grant and the graduate program grant, respectively.
